Despair, Hope, Fairytales, and Fathers
by lilybelle14
Summary: Emma's life has been no fairytale, but what are fathers for if not to cheer up their daughters? A much needed moment between Emma and her father...


Emma Swan's life has been no fairytale, which is pretty ironic given her identity. She was the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming, living in a formerly cursed town that is populated with other fairytale characters she grew up watching Disney movies about.

But the events of her life made her believe that those happy endings donot exist. After all, she lived a majority of her life believing that her parents had abandoned her on the side of a highway. She spent years in the foster system, never finding a family willing to love her enough to keep her. Her first love not only left her broken-hearted, but also pregnant with his child and in prison. And when she finally was willing to open up her heart again to another man, he literally died in her arms.

Yes. Emma Swan's life has been no fairytale. And her current situation attests to this fact.

After ten years, the first man she ever gave her heart to was back. All this time, Emma liked to imagine that he was rotting in jail. Or living a miserable life in a dirty old car. Or maybe eaten by a shark. A mutant shark that takes years to digest its food so that Neal was probably still disintegrating inside the belly of a beast. No, she did not fantasize about that last vision. Ok maybe she did. She had a lot of down time in prison.

She never imagined that she would see him again. She also did not imagine that he would be responsible, employed, and happily engaged to another woman. Yeah… definitely not the last part.

And so here she was, sitting in the sheriff's station, beer in hand, wallowing in her misery.

This is how Prince Charming found his daughter.

"Rough day?" he asked, trying not to seem too much of an overprotective parent. Emma still had yet to really connect with her father. Sure, they lived together, ate meals occasionally, and worked at the sheriff's station together. But Emma was still holding back from him, and Charming understood. After all, she knew him far longer as the weak, stupid, cheating scumbag that was David Nolan. So Charming did not want to push himself on her. He was a shepherd after all, so he knew patience.

"You could say that," Emma replied. "Mary Margaret is still feeling guilty about what happened to Cora. I'm still trying to grapple with the fact that Rumplestiltskin is the grandfather of my child. August is a little boy again. And Neal…" she broke off, not wanting to reveal the real reason for her current state of melancholy.

But her father understood anyway.

"And Neal's engaged," he finished for her, as he took a seat next to her.

Emma turned looked down at her lap, and nodded her head reluctantly.

"You know, I was engaged before I married your mother," he told her conversationally.

"Wait, what? I thought you guys were the epitome of true love! I mean you're Snow White and Prince Charming!" Emma cried, momentarily forgetting her problems.

Charming chuckled lightly at his daughter's reaction, pleased that the sad look in her eyes was gone. It was, however, replaced by a look of outrage.

"Well of course she's my true love! You'd think you'd remember that seeing how we have broken many a curse using that fact."

Emma calmed a little, but she was still slightly disconcerted. The story was about Prince Charming and Snow White. Not Prince Charming, Snow White, and Prince Charming's fiancé.

"But how…?"

"My prior engagement was most definitely not by choice. Long story short, King George's son, my twin, was supposed to marry a princess in order to save the kingdom from ruin. But he had died before he got the chance to, and King George was desperate. He couldn't find a way to bring James back, but he found me. And I was… ready-made."

Emma sat, drinking in his words. Sure she could have just read the book, but for some reason she never read her parent's story. Charming enjoyed the eagerness he found in Emma's features. _This is what it would have been like to tell my little girl a bedtime story had I had the chance to_, he thought to himself sadly. But deciding not to dwell on what could have been and what could never be, he plunged on with the story.

"After threats on my life, my mother's life, and the only home I had ever known, plus the added pressure of having the fate of the kingdom rest on my decision, I found myself engaged to Princess Abigail. You would know her as Katherine Nolan."

Emma's face morphed into one of her strange "Woah-I'm-totally-weirded-out-right-now" faces, but she didn't say anything. Charming bit back a chuckle.

"I thought that I had lost my chance at finding true love. My mother had given me her wedding ring to give to my future bride, telling me that true love follows wherever it goes. But I didn't believe her. I mean, I had never met Abigail before. For all I knew, she was a spoiled princess who never worked a day in her life, whilst I had spent a majority of mine struggling against poverty."

Charming allowed the memories to flood his mind of his childhood. Yes it had been a struggle. His father worked long hours in the fields and his mother spent too many nights distracting her son from the fact that they would not be able to eat dinner that night. But his childhood was a happy one nonetheless. Sadly, he could not say the same for his daughter.

"After I said goodbye to my mother for what I thought would be forever, I was sent to King Midas' castle to bring my bride-to-be to what was to be our future home. We were riding through the woods when we came across a fallen tree in the road. It turned out to be a diversion whilst a thief stole a pouch of jewels George had given me to make it seem like we were not a completely destitute kingdom. But I cared not for the rubies and diamonds it contained. I only cared about my mother's wedding ring.

At that time, I thought I was never going to see my mother again and I could not very well sit back and watch my only connection to her ride away into the sunset. So naturally I took off after the thief. But I guess it does not count as theft if what she stole was always meant to be hers…"

"Wait… Hers? Mary Margaret robbed you?! That's how Prince Charming met Snow White?"

Charming smiled at how childlike she seemed at the moment. "Well it gets even better. She hit me in the face. With a rock," Charming revealed while rubbing the old scar on his chin. "It has been twenty-eight years and still has yet to fade completely."

"Oh my God! How… Why… How did you… When… I just… Huh?" Emma sputtered. "What about the whole cheesy, corny 'I will always find you' crap?"

"Well my mother was right. True love did follow that ring. I found in your mother the deepest love I could ever hope to find," Charming said with such conviction and emotion that Emma had to look away.

After taking a swig from her half-forgotten beer, she asked "But how did you go from engaged to Katherine or Abigail or whatever-her-name-is to marrying Mary Margaret?"

"Well it turns out Abigail did not want to marry me either, for she already had her own true love. And even after our engagement ended, there were so many obstacles in our way. It felt like the whole world was doing its best to keep us apart, but I had faith that our true love would prevail."

Looking in his daughter's eyes, the product of his and Snow's true love, filled him with emotion. She looked so much like her mother, but he could see some of himself in her features. His little girl, the one he nearly died to protect, the one he had to abandon in order to save, the one who in the end saved them all, was hurting. She was hurting because she loved a man. A man he could tell loved her in return, but was being a complete and utter moron in his opinion.

He knew there was no way he could completely alleviate her pain. Yes, he could distract her for while with tales of his previous life, but it would not make her feel better in the end. He knew what she needed was hope. After all, believing in just the possibility of a happy ending was a very powerful thing.

"Emma, true love is not easy. But it must be fought for because once it is found, it cannot be replaced," repeating the advice he had given once upon a time to Abigail.

"Do you really think… I mean… Could Henry, Neal and I…?" Again Emma trailed off, not daring to get her hopes up when they will inevitably be torn down.

"Have faith, Emma. I had faith that I would find your mother and wake her from that terrible sleeping curse. I had faith that Snow and I would be able to protect you from Regina's dark curse. I had faith that you would find us. And you did. We did all those things Emma. And we would not have been able to if we lost our hope."

Charming could tell that his daughter was still having doubts and he knew why.

"I can tell that he still loves you."

Emma looked at her father in surprise. "How would you know that?"

"I can see the way he looks at you. It's the way my father used to look at my mother, how Thomas looks at Ella, or how Rumplestiltskin looks at Belle. It's love, Em. Trust me, I know true love when I see it. I am Prince Charming after all."

Emma chuckled as she processed her father's advice.

"And as much as I would like to punch him in the face for hurting you in the first place, I can tell that he once made you happy at a time when I did not. I can also tell that you two would be very happy together if everything works out. Which they will, of course."

Emma laughed aloud. "There's that faith thing, huh?"

"There's that faith thing," Charming confirmed.

Suddenly they heard the door to the office open and close. Father and daughter turned to see none other than the subject of their conversation.

"Hey Emma! I just… Oh hello er.. Mr. Nolan," Neal greeted awkwardly.

"Hello, Neal," Charming responded while Emma downed the rest of her beer.

Sensing that the two of them needed to talk privately, Charming stood up to take his leave.

"Well I haven't seen my wife all day, so I'm going to find her. You know, like I always do," he said winking at his daughter while she rolled her eyes good-naturedly.

Charming threw his jacket back on and started toward the exit but stopped short when he heard her voice.

"Dad?"

Charming's heart beat faster as he turned back toward Emma. She had never called him that before. In fact, she hardly acknowledged him as her father in any way before. This must be a huge step for her. For both of them.

"Yes, Emma?" He responded, barely containing his glee that his daughter just called him 'dad'.

Her next actions surprised and elated him even more. She walked up to him and gave him warm hug. Charming absolutely reveled in his daughter's embrace. He brushed her hair lovingly and when she pulled away, he wiped away a tear that made its way down her cheek. It reminded her of when her mother had done the same thing back at the Enchanted Forest when she admitted that she did not know what it was like to be put first. She knew now.

Charming placed a kiss on her forehead and grinned when she flashed a heartbreakingly beautiful smile in return.

"That faith thing, remember?" he reminded her, hoping that if she and Neal worked it out, he would see his daughter smile like that more often.

"That faith thing," she confirmed.

With that, Charming finally left (and may or may not have done an embarrassing happy dance before getting into his truck.)

Yes Emma's life had been no fairytale. But then again when did those fairytale characters ever realize that they were actually in one?

Author's Note: Well you have had the great honor of reading my very first fanfic. Do be kind in your feedback.

Just a little side note, I am not totally on board with this whole Neal/Emma ship. I will forever want Emma to end up with Graham, but since he's dead, I guess that won't happen. Sadness. Plus they just made August into a little boy again, so that rules out that pairing. Looks like the writers are really pushing Neal and Emma together, so I'll just go with it. But I love me some Daddy Charming and there just is not enough of it on the show.


End file.
